WHITTIER – Despite mounting legal challenges, the city is forging ahead with its oil drilling project by awarding contracts and setting up royalty sharing agreements.

The drilling of test wells could begin by the end of the year, said City Councilman Bob Henderson.

One of those giant steps forward included the awarding of a five-year, $1.7 million contract Tuesday to Marine Research Specialists (MRS), a Ventura-based firm that also performed an environmental impact report on the project.

On the same night, the City Council voted unanimously to share royalties up to $2 million a year with the Puente Hills Native Habitat Authority.

In September, the City Council is expected to approve a conservation easement, which protects the area from further development with the exception of the land being used for oil and gas exploration, said City Manager Jeff Collier.

While the city said it wants to move aggressively, opponents say they should not act before a judge decides the merits of several cases that could stop the project.

“All these decisions are premature … until the court decides,” said Eddie Diaz, president of the Open Space Legal Defense Fund, which is suing the city and the Habitat Authority over alleged inadequacies in the environmental documents.

A separate lawsuit from the group, as well as one from the powerful Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which is represented by State Attorney General Kamala Harris, says Whittier is in violation of Proposition A, a 1992 voter-backed initiative that prohibits any development in preserved land. The city received more than $17 million to buy about 1,290 acres of the preserve.

Henderson dismissed the SMMC and attorney general’s action, saying the westside state conservancy simply “wanted to have a piece of the action.” Revenue settlements have not been made with the SMMC, nor the Los Angeles County Open Space District.

With talks about how to share revenues with the county “stalling,” Henderson said it was a good time to plow ahead with the project.

In its new role, MRS will be tasked with making sure the city’s partners, Matrix Oil Co. and Clayton Williams Energy, Inc., comply with some 220 conditions placed on the Whittier hills oil and gas project by the city and regulatory agencies.

MRS will place at least four experts at the oil drilling site, located north of the Friendly Hills residential area. They will monitor for safety, emissions, dust, odors, noise, light and worker carpooling.

“It will be constant monitoring,” Henderson assured.

Collier said the scientists and engineers from MRS will add another layer of expertise to that of the city staff. MRS will produce monthly reports and at times, weekly reports “during heavy activity periods,” according to the report filed by MRS with the city.

City Councilman Joe Vinatieri and Councilwoman Cathy Warner wanted to make sure the public has access to MRS reports.

Collier said Whittier will be able to post MRS reports on the city’s website. The public also can ask for them at City Hall.

“This has to be very transparent to the people of Whittier … that all these mitigation measures are being watched, and that they (MRS) are on it and are telling us what is taking place,” Vinatieri said during the council meeting.

Henderson said MRS will keep a watchful eye on phase one, the test wells. If oil is discovered, having MRS overseeing the actual oil drilling and processing will be reassuring to residents.

“You’ll have an independent company that is making sure it is done right,” he said. “This should help people feel secure. It gives them an extra degree of credibility.”

Opponents of the drilling don’t feel very assured.

Diaz said having MRS watch for compliance with city conditions is like the fox guarding the hen house.

Since MRS did the EIR, Diaz feels the company cannot be impartial in its reporting to the city or regulatory agencies should there be a violation.

“It’s not that they aren’t qualified. It is that they cannot be impartial. They have a long-term relationship with Matrix,” Diaz said.

“The oversight company should be someone who comes to this with a fresh eye,” Diaz said.

Steve Scauzillo covers environment and transportation for the Southern California News Group. He has won two journalist of the year awards from the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and is a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing on environmental issues. Steve studied biology/chemistry when attending East Meadow High School and Nassau College in New York (he actually loved botany!) and then majored in social ecology at UCI until switching to journalism. He also earned a master's degree in media from Cal State Fullerton. He has been an adjunct professor since 2005. Steve likes to take the train, subway and bicycle – sometimes all three – to assignments and the newsroom. He is married to Karen E. Klein, a former journalist with Los Angeles Daily News, L.A. Times, Bloomberg and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and now vice president of content management for a bank. They have two grown sons, Andy and Matthew. They live in Pasadena. Steve recently watched all of “Star Trek” the remastered original season one on Amazon, so he has an inner nerd.